According
to Director Taylor, Ross B. Finesmith, 49,
of the Basking Ridge section of Bernards
Township, a pediatric neurologist, was sentenced
to three years of probation by Superior
Court Judge Stephen B. Rubin in Hunterdon
County. As a condition of probation, Finesmith
must undergo a psychological evaluation
and complete any recommended course of treatment
at his own expense. He must have no unsupervised
contact with children under 18 and will
be prohibited from visiting social networking
sites or using peer-to-peer file sharing
software.

Finesmith
pleaded guilty on Sept. 30, 2010 to one
count of fourth-degree possession of child
pornography. As a requirement of his plea
agreement, Finesmith is permanently barred
from practicing medicine in any state.

Deputy
Attorney General Kenneth R. Sharpe of the
Division of Criminal Justice Computer Analysis
and Technology Unit represented the state
at the sentencing. He handled the case with
Deputy Attorney General Lee Schaer and Sergeant
John Gorman of the State Police Digital
Technology Investigations Unit.

Finesmith
was indicted by a state grand jury on July
14, 2005, as a result of Operation Guardian,
an investigation by the New Jersey State
Police Child Protection and Cyber-Crime
Bureau, the Division of Criminal Justice,
and the New Jersey Internet Crimes Against
Children (ICAC) Task Force.

Operation
Guardian led to the arrest of 39 people
in New Jersey on child pornography charges
in January 2005. A member of the Wyoming
Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force
developed a file sifting technique that
was used to detect and trace known videos
of child pornography, specifically infamous
“Baby J” videos of a Georgia
man raping a 4-year-old girl. Those arrested
in New Jersey were charged with downloading
the videos and, in some cases, sharing them
online.

The
State Police arrested Finesmith on Jan.
27, 2005 and seized computers from his home
and car. In pleading guilty, Finesmith admitted
that he possessed child pornography on a
laptop computer seized from his car. The
Attorney General’s Office filed a
consent order on March 27, 2006, by which
Finesmith voluntarily surrendered his license
to practice medicine in New Jersey.